The Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting was, in many respects, an eminently practical idea. It was the portable dwelling place for the divine presence used from the time of the exodus from Egypt until the temple was built. It was built to specifications revealed by God to Moses at Mount Sinai (Exodus 25) and solved the problem of how God’s presence could be manifested while the Israelites were on the move constantly and how a holy God could dwell among a sinful people (the tent curtains, and especially the thick veil, served as a separator, a dividing barrier, between God and the people, with only the High Priest allowed into the Holy of Holies once a year.) The excellence of the tabernacle, both in its materials and its workmanship, was a reflection of the excellencies of God and the tabernacle was also a holy place, because abiding in it was a holy God (Ex 30:37, 38)

tabernacle

In the New Testament, the death and resurrection of Jesus shows us that the barrier between us and God has been removed (symbolised by the thick curtain being torn in two from top to bottom (Matt 27:51) and the book of Hebrews explains the symbolic nature of the priesthood and tabernacle in pointing us to the work Christ has done as High Priest, offering Himself as a sacrifice once for all for our sins. Hebrews 3:6 tells us Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house and Paul reminds usDo you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?’ (1 Cor 6:19) God is now pleased to dwell in us by His Spirit and our whole lives are as much ‘a portable sanctuary’ (a phrase used by Richard Foster in his book ‘Sanctuary of the Soul’) as the original tabernacle.

Richard Foster reminds us that ‘throughout all life’s motions… there can be an inward attentiveness to the divine Whisper.’ (P 86) Brother Lawrence, whose work ‘The Practice of the Presence of God’ is eminently practical, reminds us ‘the time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my needs at the blessed sacrament.’ Richard Foster’s commentary on that is ‘we bring the portable sanctuary into daily life.’

As we pray this month for each of us as Christ’s ambassadors, let’s meditate on this thought that our very lives are the temple or house of God. We are His portable sanctuary. We are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. (2 Cor 2:16) God’s Spirit dwells within us. We don’t have to strive; we just have to be what we really are.